Entries tagged with: Spoon

As previously discussed, Split Single -- the band led by Jason Narducy (of Bob Mould's band and formerly of Verbow) that also features Britt Daniel (Spoon, Divine FIts) and Jon Wurster (Bob Mould, Superchunk, Mountain Goats) -- will release their debut album, Fragmented World, next week (4/1). You won't have to wait that long to hear it though. It's now streaming in its entirety and you can listen, via SPIN, below...

Back in 2012, after Spoon's Britt Daniel formed the "supergroup" Divine Fits, he joined another new band, Split Single, which is the project of Jason Narducy (of Bob Mould's band and formerly of Verbow) and also features fellow Bob Mould collaborator Jon Wurster (also of Superchunk, Mountain Goats, etc) on drums. That band has been working on their debut album, and just finally announced that it's called Fragmented World, and will be out on April 1.

The band are planning to tour, though so far they've only announced SXSW and a release show in Jason's hometown of Chicago at Schubas on April 5. According to a press release, Jason's touring band includes Ben Trokan of Reigning Sound and Tim Remis. In the same press release, Britt Daniel said "I loved the idea of being in a band where all I do is play bass on someone else's stuff. I felt like a session musician," but maybe he'll make an appearance with them when they play his hometown during SXSW? Fingers crossed.

One of the coolest festivals in the world, Barcelona's Primavera Sound will hold its 2014 edition from May 29 - 31. Arcade Fire, Pixies and Neutral Milk Hotel were announced as headliners a while back but the fest announced it's headliners today via an online short film. They've outdone themselves this year, as the three day event includes a reunited Slowdive (!), Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The National, Television, Slint, Foals, Warpaint, St. Vincent, Majical Cloudz, Kendrick Lamar, The National, Metronomy, Queens of the Stone Age, Disclosure, CHVRCHES, Darkside, Julia Holter, Cloud Nothings , and more.

Governors Ball and Hangout Fest lineups were just announced today (and Firefly yesterday and Coachella not long before that), and now comes the lineup announcement for another big fest, Atlanta's Shaky Knees Festival. The fest goes down from May 9-11 at Atlantic Station with The National, Modest Mouse, Spoon, Local Natives, The Gaslight Anthem, Violent Femmes, Conor Oberst, Iron and Wine, Jenny Lewis, Dawes, Foals, Deer Tick, The Hold Steady, Tokyo Police Club, Graveyard, Mutual Benefit and many more. There's also one headliner still TBA. Outkast?

We already knew that Outkast would be headlining this year's Governors Ball music festival, which goes down on NYC's Randall's Island from June 6-8, and now, one day after the lineup of Firefly Fest was announced, and a few days after we found out who was playing Coachella, the full lineup has been announced. It includes Jack White, Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Interpol, TV on the Radio, Julian Casablancas, Disclosure, Spoon, Broken Bells, Damon Albarn, James Blake, Neko Case, The Kills, Grimes, Janelle Monae, Tyler the Creator, Washed Out, Earl Sweatshirt, Kurt Vile, Chance the Rapper, Deafheaven, Run the Jewels and many more.

A new Midwestern-themed bar, Lake Street, is opening next Tuesday (7/9) in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The bar is run by Brooklyn musicians who originally hailed from the Midwest, including Hold Steady drummer Bobby Drake, onetime Freedom Fighters frontman Frank Bevan, Primitive Weapons bassist Eric Odness, and Spoon bassist Rob Pope. A press release about the new bar reads:

Comprised of four Midwesterners and a Northern Irishman, Lake St. brings its low-key anthem to 706 Manhattan Ave. (btwn Norman and Meserole) in the form of a classic Midwestern tavern meets local neighborhood hangout. Wanting to create a bar in Brooklyn that reminded them of the bars they loved growing up in the Midwest the space has a decidedly old bar feel as evidenced by the 80 year old bowling lane bar top and checkerboard floor. The partnership team includes members of indie rock stalwarts Spoon, The Hold Steady, Primitive Weapons, W/O., and pop culture craze boy band, The Wanted. Lake St. offers a full liquor bar, twelve taps of locals, seasonals, favorites, and an array of Midwestern canned and bottled brews. Look for special guest DJ's on selected nights on their website, twitter, and Instagram.

Mixing in psychedelic soul and funk, Dallas gospel group The Relatives were Texas legends in the '70s, sharing bills with The Staple Singers, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, and The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, among others. They disbanded in the early '80s but when Heavy Light records put out a compilation of their obscure, out-of-print 45s a few years ago, The Relatives got back together.

Now, with production help from Spoon's Jim Eno and backing from former Black Joe Lewis guitarist Zach Ernst and others, The Relatives are set release their first ever album, The Electric Word, on February 19 via Yep Roc. We've got the premiere of "Things Are Changing" from it which you can stream below.

Before the album drops, The Relatives will be bringing the Gospel to NYC for three shows: a free show at Lincoln Center on January 10 (info); the WFMU benefit at The Bell House on January 13 with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and more (tickets); and Joe's Pub on January 14 with Debo Band (tickets).

A list of all tour dates, track stream and some vintage and recent Relatives videos are below...

Crafty social commerce site Etsy has a holiday pop-up shop at 113 Greene St. in SoHo that runs through Saturday (12/8). In addition to selling various wares there are also free craft demonstrations and musical performances. Tonight (12/5) at 8:30 the musical guest is listed as "Secret Performer" but we have it on good authority that it's Foxygen (for whom we just premiered a video, and open up for Of Montreal at Webster Hall next week).

Other musical performances this week include Izzy & the Catastrophics today at 4 PM; Eric Harvey of Spoon performs on Thursday night (12/8); Gem Club play Friday afternoon (12/7, 4 PM); and Reggie Watts (who is one of the holiday shop's curators) will perform Saturday (12/8) at 7 PM. Again, all shows are free and open to the public (but subject to capacity, obviously). The full list of the Etsy Holiday Shop's musical performance schedule is below, and you can see the entire list of upcoming events here.

While many were sleeping off their CMJ hangover, musical or otherwise, Divine Fits were headlining Webster Hall on Sunday night (10/21) joined by support from Cold Cave as part of a larger string of dates. The tight supercrew ran through tracks from their Merge debut, covered Frank Ocean ("Lost") and Wipers ("Doom Town"), and even took a time out to throw fried chicken into the audience (*cough*KoolKeith*cough*).

Cold Cave, the brainchild of Wesley Eisold, was sporting a new version of Cold Cave at the NYC date, now that Dominick Fernow has flown the coop to concentrate on his project Vatican Shadow. Eisold's new band definitely leans more toward the punk end of things, employing the talents of Hunter Burgan (AFI), Cody Votolato (Blood Brothers, yes the brother of Rocky), Jessie Nelson (Head Automatica), and London May (Samhain, Dag Nasty).

We've known aboutDivine Fits for a while, songs have been trickling out since early this summer and their terrific album has been out for a couple weeks now. Some of us even saw them in Austin and Chicago. But it took me seeing them live last night (9/9) at Music Hall of Williamsburg -- their NYC debut -- to realize that this is not just some offshoot supergroup timekiller project from guys in Spoon and Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs. Divine Fits are the real deal and their show is easily one of my favorites of the year to date.

Divine Fits bring together two like-minded souls (and voices) in Dan Boeckner and Britt Daniel who had giant grins on their faces the whole show, feeding off a legitimately pumped crowd. "You're too kind, really," Boeckner sheepishly said at one point, seeming a little astonished at the audience's reaction to "My Love is Real," "Would That Not Be Nice" and "The Salton Sea." Daniel, meanwhile, was clearly having a blast and it was cool to watch him digging the sounds the rest of the band were making. Maybe it's puppy love, but Divine Fits were a marriage made in heaven and this was definitely a honeymoon show.

Speaking of digging the band, the contributions of the other two members of Divine Fits should not be dimissed. New Bomb Turks' Sam Brown is a machine behind the kit, and keyboardist Alex Fischel's dexterous style is integral to the band's sound. The group ripped through the entirety of their album (which includes Rowland S. Howard's "Shivers," the encore last night) plus two covers: a nervy but faithful read of Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky" and Wipers' "Doom Town" that fit in seamlessly with the band's two sides (dancing and rocking out).

Divine Fits will be back in NYC on their tour with Cold Cave which hits October 21 at Webster Hall and tickets for that show are still available. The setlist and more pictures from the Music Hall of Williamsburg show, including opener Sean Bones, are below.

Tonight (8/1), indie rock supergroup Divine Fits (Britt Daniel from Spoon, Dan Boeckner from Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, and Sam Brown from New Bomb Turks - and auxiliary member Alex Fischel) are set to play their official first show at a sold-out Beerland in Austin, TX.

But last night (7/31), they got together and played a secret show at Austin's The Continental Club. Billed as 'The Hot Skull', they were sandwiched between Austin's The Laughing (who were playing their first show) and TV Torso. Divine Fits ran through the almost the entirety of their forthcoming Merge debut (out Aug. 28, which includes a cover of Nick Cave's "Shivers") plus a take on Tom Petty's 'You Got Lucky'; pretty sure all in attendance felt like they did.

As for the rest of the country, Divine Fits haven't announced a full tour yet, but they do have a few dates set up, including stops in the members' respective hometowns. They play Dan's homebase, Montreal, on Friday, August 3 (not part of Osheaga Fest), and visit Brown's Columbus, OH stomping grounds on August 6. They also play Chicago on August 5 and Salt Lake on Aug. 9.

Spoon had nothing to promote and no surplus of new songs to unveil. This was just an Austin band -- Austin's biggest indie band ever -- playing an Austin festival for their only major show of 2011 (at least so far). As a live unit, the four-piece that recorded Transmission (augmented here by an additional percussionist) is as precise as Spoon has ever been, cranking out savagely controlled, often slow-building versions of such songs as "Written in Reverse," "Delicate Places" and the instantaneously applauded "I Turn My Camera On." "We got horns!" frontman Britt Daniel proclaimed, bringing out a six-man section for "Cherry Bomb," "The Underdog" and "Jonathan Fisk." By the four-song encore, the crowd had both increased in enthusiasm and decreased in size -- no doubt some people had wandered to another stage to see the Damned, which Daniel himself had said he wished that he could do. [SPIN]

Personally I started at the Damned (who were great) and finished Saturday with about 30 minutes of Spoon which felt like the perfect chill ending to a long first-two-days of the outdoor Austin fest (right after their set I went back to the hotel, skipped all afterparties and crashed for 12 hours straight which made Sunday great).

Our first set of pictures from Saturday, Damned included, are HERE. Our second set continues, more of Spoon included, below...

After the Soundtown Music Festival and a few shows with The Decemberists and Fruit Bats this month, Okkervil River will kick off a headlining tour, much of which is with Wye Oak. The tour kicks off at State Theatre of Ithaca in Ithaca, NY with Bird of Youth and NewVillager and also includes appearances at VIrgin Free Fest and Midpoint Music Festival. Okkervil River and Wye Oak were both scheduled to also play Truck America in the Catskills but the festival has since been cancelled (hence the Ithaca show). All dates are listed below.

Okkervil River recently released a 7-inch for "Your Past Life As A Blast" off their new record I Am Very Far. Grab that song for free above.

Okkervil River are also set to play Fun Fun Fun Fest which takes place in Austin, TX from November 4 - 6. The festival announced more artists for the already-incredible lineup today including fellow big Austin indie band Spoon (their only 2011 show), the Black Lips, Omar Souleyman, Sergio "Sexy Sax Man" Flores, Cannibal Corpse, "and more". The full lineup is at FFFest's site and tickets are still on sale.

""This festival is super-cool," said Strokes singer Julian Casablancas from the stage at Austin City Limits on Friday night. "Lotta stuff." It's true: The festival, now in its ninth year, packs 130 bands onto eight outdoor stages arranged around the 350-acre Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. The lineup is a mix of huge rock acts (the Eagles headline Sunday) and big-name indie bands, plus DJs, country singers and the occasional rapper. With an expected attendance of around 70,000 a day, the festival similar in size, if not in spirit, to Lollapalooza. "Lollapalooza has that city energy. It's like the hot girl you want to take home," one organizer, Lisa Hickey, said. "ACL is more laid-back -- it's like your best friend." And unlike South By Southwest, the music and film showcase that takes over the Texas town every spring, ACL doesn't have much of a music-industry angle -- it's almost strictly for fans.

On Friday night, the packed lineup presented the crowd with a happy problem: Four big-name guitar bands -- Spoon, Sonic Youth, Vampire Weekend, and the Strokes -- all had sets starting within two hours of each other, and seeing each set in its entirety was impossible."
[Rolling Stone]

Of those big four, Tim managed to catch three, and a bit of Vampire Weekend's favorite band Phish from afar. Phish's set included a Velvet Underground and a Talking Heads cover. Full setlist at the end of this post.

Kings Go Forth pictures are HERE. The rest of the pictures from the first day of the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival (where Ezra Koenig joined Miike Snow on stage), continue, with a bunch of setlists (including Spoon's which points out that Eleanor Friedberger played a Fiery Furnaces song with Spoon) (video proof too), below...

Ray Davies has a new LP on the way entitled See My Friends due on November 1st. The release will see The Kinks frontman pairing with multiple bands to re-record, and sometimes re-imagine, Kinks songs. And these bands have names like Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Spoon, Black Francis, Metallica, Mumford & Sons... and the legendary Alex Chilton (RIP).

"This project came about almost by accident," says Davies of the project, which was kick-started when he recorded a version of 'Till The End Of The Day' in the summer of 2009, with Alex Chilton.

The full list of collaborators is below.

Davies is getting back on the road as well, though so far he just has scattered dates in Europe, and a newly-announced show in the United States. He'll be performing his 2009 LP The Kinks Choral Collection with the Dessoff Chamber Choir at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ on November 26th. Tickets go on sale at noon today (10/8). NYC got that show in 2009.

All dates, the See My Friends tracklisting, and some video are below...

Spoon played Music Hall of Williamsburg last night (9/13) with Sean Bones, one of two shows that the band played yesterday with the first being a video shoot at Cake Shop. At MHOW, Spoon covered their recent LP Transference and reached back as far as 1998's A Series of Sneaks for the opener "Car Radio". Everything in between seemed represented as well, with Spoon even tagging on a pair of covers: "Modern World" (Wolf Parade) and "No Time" (Jay Reatard).

Spoon has no other East Coast dates scheduled at the moment, though the band is scheduled to play the West Coast (leading up to Matador 21) and the Southwest (leading up to Austin City Limits) before jetting out to the EU. Full tour dates, pics/video from MHOW, and setlists from MHOW and Cake Shop are below...

"Just saw Spoon for free at the Cake Shop and they played "Car Radio" and I'm seeing them later tonight too best day!!!!!!!" - Kelly Conaboy

Spoon just played a free lunchtime show in Cake Shop's intimate basement room. The occasion was reportedly a video shoot for "Nobody Gets Me But You". The written setlist was approximately eight songs long (we'll have the whole thing later), and they played "Car Radio" by request for an encore.

The above cell phone snaps show the line to get in, and the band bathed in red lighting during soundcheck (thx PP).

Spoon's last two NYC shows took place at Madison Square Garden where they opened for their Merge labelmate Arcade Fire. And there's been a rumor floating around that the band might also be playing their own show at Williamsburg Waterfront this summer or fall, but it has been announced that Spoon will play the much smaller Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 13th (one day after they play a free show in NJ).

"Lollapalooza wheeled out some big headliners in its sixth year on the Chicago lakefront, as a record 240,000 people poured into Grant Park over three days to see 130 performers, including Lady Gaga, Green Day and reunited grunge-era icons Soundgarden.

Size matters at Lollapalooza, as the festival expanded its reach westward by shutting down Columbus Avenue and spreading eight stages across 110 acres, up from 80 acres in previous years. Columbus Avenue was converted into a giant sidewalk lined with portable toilets, a simple but effective improvement that allowed fans to avoid the dreaded Buckingham Fountain bottleneck that had turned previous festivals into human traffic jams. The festival topped its previous three-day record of 225,000, reached the last two years.

Still, there was little room during some performances at the northernmost stages on Butler Field, where fans jostled shoulder-to-shoulder for space to see performances by Metric, Phoenix and Arcade Fire. Note to Austin, Texas-based promoters C3 Presents: How about widening the southern entrance to Butler Field or moving one of the stages onto Columbus Drive to relieve what is becoming an annual problem? It's only going to get worse if the festival approaches its new capacity of 95,000 a day in future years." [Chicago Tribune]

The 2010 edition of Lollapalooza went down in Chicago on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A set of pictures from the first two of those days, continue below...